Dr. Usha Kamal

I would say believe in yourself and be passionate about what you do. Don't be influenced by social media on the wrong side - look at things and utilize the time that is good for your progress. Unless you are a model, don't look into the fashion world and all that. This age until 25 or 27 is the time to make your career, so balance your career and your health. Utilize your time to the best, not going around, roaming here and there, watching things which are unproductive. Just see that if you're watching something, how productive it is for me, how well utilized it is, because they say time is money. Whenever you are using all these things, just think in terms that you're wasting money, because ultimately you are paid by time - one hour $10, one hour $100, one hour $1,000, and you earn by that. The sooner they understand, the better it is. They need to be passionate, they need to believe in themselves, they need to utilize their time properly. They need not be going on to the pubs and all that. Stay away from drugs, alcohol, and all - it's something like abusing the body when you take all these things. They need to be honest to themselves, have to believe in themselves. They don't need too much appreciation from others. They know what they are. If people compliment you, just take it balanced.

There are plenty of opportunities if you want to do work, especially in terms of grant writing. We can't make an excuse that we don't have resources, because there are people out there trying to help you. I got grants for advanced drones with cameras, computers, and all. You have opportunities with respect to getting resources from people in terms of human resources or financials that you want, because if you have skills to write grants and have ideas, people are there to help. The challenges I would say are trying to convince people to implement things. With students, you have to keep sending them reminders to participate because they are occupied with so many other things. I also saw challenges with my drone project - it was supposed to be a class, but scheduling became an issue and the class was withdrawn. The principal was hesitant to give the letter of support. But the ADF (Academic Distinction Funding) people were nice - they said they would come visit, so they visited. Our students were doing a good job flying drones and they were happy about it, so we got the grant. We had challenges but we overcame them and we are doing it. You have plenty of opportunities if you do the work. It may take time, you will have to look for the people and apply. I spent the whole Thanksgiving winter break just applying for grants and trying to be collaborative with colleagues. I have some good teachers here who help me, so things work.

I think the most important value is passion. You have to be passionate about the work that you are doing - interest is a little lesser word than passionate. You have to be collaborative, you have to be flexible, and empathetic. Honesty and integrity are of course there, but I think it's important to be honest with yourself first. If you're honest with yourself, you will be honest with others. Collaboration is very, very important. I don't know all the things, so I have to collaborate with my colleagues who are good in social media, who are good in technology. I take help from Global Geospatial Institute, LSU Aspire, and Advanced Aerial Education, and they have given their support to the students. If we are showing our work and they know that where the money is being invested will be productive and not wasted, they will help. So we have to be passionate, we have to be collaborative, we have to be honest with ourselves that we are doing the right thing, so that people can see, feel, and have trust and faith in us that we are doing the right thing.